


Between a Rock and... Another Rock

by StardustAndAsh



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
Genre: Blood, Cave-In, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Major Character Injury, Putting the hurt back in hurt/comfort, Ship what you want, i lied theres very little comfort, post season one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-22
Updated: 2018-11-22
Packaged: 2019-08-27 13:06:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16703191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StardustAndAsh/pseuds/StardustAndAsh
Summary: Adora, Glimmer, and Catra end up stuck together in a cave in after a skirmish between the Rebels and the Horde. With Adora injured, it's up to Glimmer and Catra to put aside their differences to get all three of them out.





	Between a Rock and... Another Rock

Sometimes after a long sleep consciousness comes back slowly. Soft darkness unfurls to reveal warm sunlight and birdsong or the comfort of waking up to hear the gentle patter of rain. When waking up like that its hard to resist the call of the warm blankets and sheets.

Sometimes, however, consciousness comes back all too quickly. A loud alarm or a pet jumping on the bed is enough to jolt one awake with a pounding heart.

Adora woke up all too quickly. It wasn’t an alarm, nor a pet slinking onto the foot of her bed that woke her from dark sleep. It was a sharp, burning pain making itself known in her ankle. Beneath her she could feel the edges of the Sword of Protection digging into her spine. Now that she was awake it was hard to ignore the throbbing of her head and the sore stiffness that seemed to have taken over her entire body.

What happened? Where was she? Had she been alone?

Her memory was hazy. She had been running. Footsteps heavy and quick, breath catching as she ran, the others just behind her –the others! Adora could vaguely recall her name being shouted at her as the world went dark.

“Bow? Glimmer?” Adora called weakly.

No response came.

Adora tried rolling herself over, and found herself stuck at the ankle. She opened her eyes and looked down. At least, she tried to look down. She opened her eyes into darkness. Vast, unchanging darkness. Instantly she was transported back to that room in the First Ones’ ruin. She could see Catra clear as day, standing over her with that sly almost-grin. Those cold eyes looking down at her. She was going to fall, and Catra was just going to watch her die.

“Adora,” the Catra in her vision spoke. “Adora?”

The vision swam and stuttered before vanishing back into darkness. Adora was left alone in the dark once more.  With her fingers she began trying to feel for her ankle in the dark, but then, a voice called out in the darkness once more.

“Adora?”

A familiar, low voice called through the darkness. Catra. Catra was here, in the dark, and sounded afraid.

“Catra?” Adora called back.

“Ah the mighty princess awakes.” Adora could hear the smirk in the words.

“Catra? Where? What happened?”

“You don’t remember?”

“Remember what?”

Adora’s hands found her ankle. Or rather, they found what had prevented her from rolling over earlier. Rocks. Lots of rocks. Her ankle was being crushed beneath a pile of stone her fingers couldn’t find the ends of.

“You pissed something off enough it chased us in here and then brought the place down around our ears.”

“Are you alright?” asked Adora. If she was stuck and injured, Catra probably wasn’t fairing much better.

“I’m fine!”

She said it quickly. It would have been too quick to be believed if the words had come from someone like Glimmer, but Adora knew Catra. She was uncomfortable in the pressing darkness and starting to get defensive. Adora nodded in response, though she doubted Catra could see her.

They sat in silence for a while. With every breath Adora felt her sword dig a little deeper, her ankle hurt just a little bit more, and she would swear the dark cavern they were in had begun to spin. She could hear Catra shuffling in the dark, scratching at rocks. The sound made her head hurt more but it seemed far too much effort to tell her to stop. Instead she focussed on things she could feel. Pain in her ankle was at the top of that list, but there was also the rough stone that made up their surroundings. It was cold and caught at the callouses on Adora’s hands when she moved. As long as she could feel it, it was real and distracting.

“Ow…” Another voice joined them in the land of wakefulness.

“Glimmer?”

“I’m here,” she said with a groan. “Its so dark in here!”

“Yeah, maybe because a stupid giant bug monster decided to cause a cave in,” growled Catra in response.

“Wait? Catra’s here too?”

“Yes. She is,” said Catra icily.

“Wait a minute, why are we all still talking in the dark?” Glimmer said before tiny pinpricks of light formed at the edge of Adora’s vision. Even knowing what was about to happen didn’t help when Glimmer used her magic to light up the area.

Soft pink light lit up the inside of their small cavern and drilled twin points of pain into Adora’s skull even though her eyes were shut. She let out an involuntary cry and covered her face with her hands. She was only mildly surprised to find warm, tacky blood caking the side of her face.

“Adora!”

“Adora!”

Twin cried echoed in their small cavern.

Slowly, Adora opened her eyes to see the stone ceiling far closer than she expected and the worried faces of Glimmer and Catra hanging over her. Once her eyes were open Glimmer broke into a grin and Catra leaned back a little, face smoothing into something more neutral.

Now that she could see, Adora could analyze her companions and figure out how to get out of their stone prison. Catra looked fine. No doubt her reflexes had saved her from being hit by any flying rocks. Glimmer on the other hand looked exhausted. Not just physically. This was the exhaustion Adora saw seeping into Glimmer every time she over extended her powers. She was wearing her armour too, and something about this picked at Adora’s memory.

They had been on a mission from Angella. Bow, Glimmer, and herself had been sent to a village in the Whispering Woods to fortify it against Horde attacks. And then just because fate had it in for Adora the Horde had attacked what felt like seconds after they had arrived, lead by none other than Catra. Whatever the Horde was using to attack them had the unfortunate downside of attracting giant killer bugs who were dead set on trampling anyone in sight. Adora had left it to Bow to evacuate the civilians while She-Ra and Glimmer fought off the Horde and distracted the bugs. She’d never look at silverfish the same way ever again. Watching it’s giant red and brown cousin crash through a Horde tank like it was nothing would do that.

Eventually Glimmer’s magic began to wane from teleporting herself and She-Ra out of danger and Catra was dancing in and out of range, trading quick blows and hasty retreats. That’s when the bug spotted them. Bigger than the rest and twice as angry. It thundered after them as they ran, Horde and Rebel forgetting their quarrel as they raced towards the only thing in sight that offered refuge. Once they entered the cave was where Adora’s memory became spotty. There was just noises and pain before waking up in darkness.

“This is so frustrating!” Glimmer said somewhere out of Adora’s field of vision. “My magic is teleportation and I just happen to run out of energy the one time I really need it? The universe must really hate me today or something.”

“Are all princesses this annoying or is it just another one of your powers?” said Catra.

“Ugh!”

“Hey, while we’re all trapped down here maybe it’s best if we tried to get along?” said Adora slowly.

Adora tried rolling over as much as she could to at least see both Glimmer and Catra and not be forced to stare at the ceiling while they bickered. Her head swam and her leg protested the movement, but she did manage to get onto her side and get the two of them into sight. They were sitting as far away from each other as the space would allow, so roughly five feet. Catra had her tail curled around herself while Glimmer just glared at her over knees that were drawn up to her chin.

“Can’t you just turn into the big shiny princess and get us all out of here?”

“I could try? First I might need some help with my leg.”

“What’s wrong with your leg?” asked Glimmer, leaning back over and taking a good long look at Adora. “Oh. Oh no”

“What? She stub her toe?” asked Catra. Despite trying to appear uninterested Adora could see those mismatched eyes glancing her way.

“No! She’s stuck!”

Adora felt Glimmer’s strong and stubby fingers pressing around the stones keeping her leg in place and looked down. Her leg disappeared into stone halfway between her knee and her ankle. Stone that was dark and wet. Adora swallowed. Nausea roiled in her gut as the pain amplified threefold. It was as if all that existed was the pain. It was as if it had just been simmering before but now that she could see it, the pain was all she could feel.

“Adora! Just breathe, okay? I’m going to get you out, and then Bow’s going to find us and then we’re going to go home to Brightmoon and Mom’ll know what to do to fix you.” Glimmer began talking a mile a minute as she dug her fingers under a stone.

The second Glimmer began moving the stone it felt like whatever remained of Adora’s ankle was being ground together.

“Ah!” Adora cried out before choking down any sound and grinding her teeth together.

It came as a surprise when she felt a long-fingered hand take her own. She looked up to see Catra sitting next to her, one hand reaching out of her defensive curl to hold Adora’s own. Catra’s eyes were fixed on where Glimmer was trying to gently remove the stones pinning Adora.

“I thought Shadow Weaver trained you to take a little bit of pain. Guess you’re not so tough after all,” said Catra, but the words had no bite to them.

 “Guess so,” said Adora through her gritted teeth.

“Just a few more minutes then you’ll be out, okay?” said Glimmer.

Those few minutes stretched on into what felt like forever. Forever filled with pain. She bit through her lip and tasted blood. She squeezed Catra’s hand hard enough to cut herself on her claws. There was no word of complaint from Catra, however. No teasing nor taunting. The only noise was her own panting breath and the occasional grunt from Glimmer as she moved a particularly heavy rock.

As the last stone was lifted away Adora felt part of her ankle want to go with it. There was a squelching sort of noise as Glimmer lifted it away. Adora tried her best to breathe deeply through her nose until the worst of the nausea faded.

“That’s not good,” said Catra.

Adora moved to look and see, but clawed fingers caught her chin and held it in place.

“Don’t look.”

“I think I’m going to be sick,” said Glimmer.

“You don’t look either then.”

While everyone was in the process of looking or not looking at whatever remained of Adora’s ankle Adora felt a chill of fear run down her spine. Or was it just cold. She’d never been so helpless before. Sickness had never made her feel so weak, and she’d never been so hurt in any of the Horde’s training, nor fighting with the princesses. She started to tremble. Her fingers were going numb where they were clutched around Catra’s hand. The world was spinning around her again and she closed her eyes against the feeling.

“Hey Princess, give me your cape.”

“Why?”

“Because Adora’s going into shock. What? They didn’t cover basic first aid in princess school?”

There was a shuffle, then something soft was draped over Adora. It didn’t help too much with feeling cold, but it was a small comfort.

“Here, take over, I’m going to see about getting us out of here.”

There was another shuffle. Adora’s hands were pried away from the one in hers and left empty. Then her head was being lifted and placed on something soft and warm. Glimmer’s lap, she thought distantly. Thick soft hands cradled Adora’s face, one gently probing at the place on her head that hurt the most. Distantly she heard the sound of digging and stones being pushed aside.

Above, Glimmer was quietly humming some sort of melody. Or rather what sounded like a few notes of three different melodies. Whether it was to soothe Adora or her own nerves it was hard to tell. It was something to focus on at least. She could feel the vibration of the notes through Glimmer and it was as good an anchor as any.

Then she heard the first rumble.

There was a great crunching growl coming from the ceiling of their little cave. Glimmer stopped her humming with a gasp. Adora opened her eyes to see the rock above shifting, pebbles and dust began to fall, and Adora could put together what would happen next.

“For the honour of Greyskull!”

She-Ra braced herself against the stones just as they started to fall, taking their weight on her shoulders. Both Catra and Glimmer were staring at her wide-eyed but she took little notice. Growing exponentially also meant her injury grew with her. Her ankle felt like it was shredding itself, ripping itself apart, but she couldn’t let go. If she did Catra and Glimmer would be crushed.

“Keep digging, I’ll keep this up,” She-Ra said with a shaky voice.

“But you’re hurt,” said Glimmer, eyes full of concern.

“Then dig fast, please.”

Glimmer’s face hardened and she nodded, turning to stand shoulder to shoulder with Catra and began pulling stones out of their way.

It was slow going. Often the rocks were so big that Catra and Glimmer had to carry them together. Meanwhile She-Ra felt her shoulders seizing and locking as her arms shook with effort. She was entranced by the slow drip of blood from her head to the stone floor. Drip. Drip. Drip. It was like a metronome or a clock, counting down the seconds to their freedom. It was a lot of seconds. She watched as the drips became a puddle beneath her, rippling towards her knees and tickling her skin.

“I can see light ahead!” called Glimmer. It seemed like a whisper brushing by to She-Ra.

“Move this one with me, that should give us enough room to squeeze through.”

Drip. Drip. Drip. She-Ra’s steady concentration was broken by a hand on her face. She raised her eyes to Glimmer.

“We can get out, but you need to let go of She-Ra,” said Glimmer gently.

She-Ra shook her head, she needed to keep the rocks up, keep them safe.

“You don’t have to keep it up anymore. We’re safe. Just ease yourself over here, that’s it.” Glimmer led her close to the opening they had made. She-Ra stiffly let the stone down behind her as she passed, trying to unlock her shoulders from the painful hunch that they had been in, dragging her injured leg along behind her like dead weight. Finally, finally, she reached the small exit Glimmer and Catra had created. With a deep breath she released She-Ra. She felt herself shrinking, becoming Adora once more, and then she felt her ankle snapping back to size with a crack of pain up her leg, and fell down, down into darkness.

Sometimes after a long sleep consciousness comes back slowly. Adora rose to wakefulness through a comforting blanket of darkness. The kind of wakefulness where she felt ready to go back to sleep almost immediately after she opened her eyes. She blinked up at the high, familiar ceiling of her bedroom in Brightmoon. With one curious hand she poked at her head. Soft bandages were wound around it, and with an experimental wiggle of her toes, Adora deduced that her leg had been bound tightly against a splint knee to toes.

Soft breathing indicated she wasn’t alone. Adora looked over to see Glimmer and Bow asleep on a small sofa, obviously pilfered from Glimmer’s room, that had been placed near her bed. Beyond the two of them she could see out the window to the dark starry sky and the peaceful moon that lit the room. The moonlight shimmered off the blade of the Sword of Protection where it rested in Glimmer’s lap.

Adora closed her eyes, feeling content, and shifted to find a more comfortable position. Something poked. She felt around her pockets for what had committed such a grave offence and came up with a folded piece of paper. Quickly she unfolded it and found a short message.

‘Feel better soon’

It was signed with a familiar cartoonish picture of Catra with her tongue sticking out. Adora smiled at it before slipping the note under her pillow. She closed her eyes, and let the gentle breathing of her friends pull her into sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Not my best work, I'll admit, but I had a need for hurt Adora. Sometimes you just gotta roll up your sleeves and write what you want to read.


End file.
